Poly-modeled and rigged in Blender, rendered with Cycles. It was interesting to make all of the wrinkles and other features simply by cutting polygons, with no sculpting.
I began modeling from a quite old hand mesh which I had made while watching Jonathan Williamson’s hand modeling tutorial. For help getting started with the new topology, I looked at meshes by Steven Stahlberg, but my work diverged a great deal as I went along. For form reference I looked at various photographs of real female hands and those of classical statues.
If anyone disagrees with my use of ngons, tris, and heavy poles, I’d be pleased to discuss the subject.
I don’t think I would survive. I would be the one person in my group that is turned into a zombie without anyone noticing. My zombie self would stay with the group for awhile, and slowly turn my friends into zombies, one by one.
A nice result! very tangible and fleshy whilst being elegant and refined.
Will you sculpt extra details/wrinkles later?
If anyone disagrees with my use of ngons, tris, and heavy poles, I’d be pleased to discuss the subject.
if it looks good and deforms nicely then actual topology “rules” are moot. so no discussion needed!
Stahlberg is highly regarded for character modelling and routinely uses poles/ngons, often relying on the “artefacts” that they produce to enhance creases, dimples etc… after one subdiv you’re all quads anyway.
Looks amazing! I too use ngons! There I admitted it! Although my use of them is due more to an inability not too use them instead of a choice. Either way your hands look amazing!
i like the fleshy character of the sculpt. i am amazed that the “dead ends” do not create trouble on the smoothed mesh, maybe the “quads only” rule is always meant with view to animation? i have occassionally trouble with triangles, but i want try using ngons now instead as your sculpt shows no problems at all… anyway, the hands are really beautifully sculpted, and that is what counts.
Thanks to all who commented – I appreciate the compliments. I intended to reply earlier, but I’ve been busy practicing in ZBrush to prepare for Scott Eaton’s Digital Figure Sculpture course, which is starting tomorrow.
@Michael W
I probably won’t add any more details to this particular piece, although it would certainly improve it to do so. I’m hoping that making these hands will have prepared me for the hand assignment in my upcoming sculpture course.
@Scubasteve1974
In most cases, I would just cut into the mesh wherever I needed to add a form contour, and would then remove the ngons, tris or npoles if they interfered with the surface. But in some cases it was a conscious choice to use them, like in the fingernail region, where I think it would have seriously harmed the appearance if I used only quads, unless I made the polycount a lot higher.
@jafem
yeah I guess it’s a matter of style, but I suppose this woman must have just cut her nails, haha
@doris
You have some nice sculptures at your website! Very glad that you will try using ngons, on account of my work.
It is true that triangles are usually more problematic than ngons. I did a subdivision surfaces test in Blender recently and saw that you actually get a higher concentration of polygons when using 1 quad + 1 triangle, versus 1 ngon.
You should be able to use ngons for animation too, as long as the surfaces which deform comprise mostly quads aligned in the direction of motion. These hands are rigged, and are actually posed in the render, and no real problems are present.
Beautiful renderings. Although there IS a great deal on net that is negative about animations with poles and ngons.
Too, Stahlberg is mainly concerned with likewise stills and mostly tries to keep such mesh constructs hidden in places as
back of the head, between toes etc. Have never seen any animations from him, but other animators have been successful with this approach.
Again, your renders are inspiring and VERY well done, as you already know.
